The scariest yard in Yadkinville

If you’re looking for an inexpensive, scary thrill this Hallows Eve try looking in your own backyard. Yadkinville Kustom Scares presents Halloween 2012, a Yadkinville residents tribute to their love for Halloween.

Kustom Scares will be open from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. tonight. It is located at 2004 Brittany Oaks Court in Yadkinville. There is no charge for the event.

Iowa Chapman has been turning his yard into a scene out of a horror movie for over 20 years. He started in the early 1990s at his home in California.

“One night on Halloween a friend of mine came over and he had a Michael Myers mask and he was out in the front yard doing all these crazy things and walking up to cars and people were freaking out,” Chapman said. “We thought this was pretty neat because we were scaring all of these people.”

That was just the beginning. The next year Chapman and his brother Noah started turning his yard into a graveyard and dressing in costumes to scare their trick or treaters.

Chapman’s friends in California started getting in on the action. He said that they had at least eight friends that came out to help decorate and dress in costume Halloween night.

Eventually Chapman moved to North Carolina and Noah stayed behind in California. The scares suffered but both of them tried to keep it going in their respective neighborhoods.

“There was a point that I was here in North Carolina and my brother was still in California and I was doing some small stuff here and he was still setting up at Halloween and once he moved to Mount Airy that’s when we really started getting back into it,” Chapman said.

Chapman moved to his Yadkinville address in 2008. He said he didn’t get a chance to set up his first year. This year Kustom Scares will celebrate its fourth Halloween.

Chapman said that his decorations and props have been accumulating since he started in the 90s but his miniature haunted trail is the new addition to this year’s haunt. The 24-foot trail features four “rooms” of bumps and scares in the dark.

“We were going to just do a mausoleum and put in the yard but then I started looking and I realized we could actually make an enclosure on the walkway and it kind of grew from there,” Chapman said.

This new addition and other improvements this year set Chapman back $700 to $1,000. He said that it took him a little over a month to complete the set up. Chapman and Noah just completed the finishing touches last week.

Chapman said that his neighborhood is lined with cars Halloween night. He’s arranged to have a radio station playing scary stories, music and sound effects for parents to set the mood as the arrive. He says he’s hoping for another successful year if the weather clears up for him tonight.

Chapman’s neighbors all seem to be agreeable to the madness that ensues at his home on Halloween. He says that a few of his neighbors are new and they both seem to be excited about the event and want to participate.

Chapman said that the main purpose of Kustom Scares is to bring the community together and provide fun and scares.

“We’re here to have fun and we’ll try to scare people,” Chapman said. “It’s just enjoyable and a community and family event. That’s the whole reason that we do it because we want people to have something to enjoy on Halloween.

“When we were kids this was the kind of thing that we really liked to see and back then it was rare to see something like this. It’s fun for us too,” Chapman continued.

Those who want to check out Kustom Scares but have small children can still come out. Chapman said that he and the other live actors won’t single out the younger kids or any kids who are scared when they arrive.

“If there are really young kids and they are scared and don’t want to go through then we’ll have candy for them to the side,” Chapman said. “We understand that sometimes some of the kids are really afraid just by the appearance of the yard.”

Reach Lindsay Craven at 679-2341 or at lcraven@heartlandpublications.com.

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